The academic surgeon of tomorrow should also be a scientist because many of today’s clinical conditions cannot be overcome using the current education of medical schools or surgical training. The solutions lie at the cellular and molecular level that is beyond the scope of surgical education. As an example, the genetic basis of many surgical conditions has revolutionized treatment modalities, such as the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in kidney cancer. Therefore, the appropriate basic scientific training is essential.

It is obvious that translational surgical research, unlike clinical training, is lacking in structure, organization and oversight, which is most likely the most important constraint for surgical science. Without education in the era of high technology, meaningful research cannot be performed. For this reason, a balanced approach should be the benchmark of this field, and research training should have a structured curriculum. Meanwhile, leaders of departments should promote translational research and young faculty to present novel work at meetings and be involved with grant writing. They should invest time and resources in young investigators to prevent them from decreasing their research activities. It should be known that it now takes up to 5–7 years for a surgeon scientist to become established and subsequently be a mentor for others [6]. In the era of modern technology, practicing urologists have a caveat of being an applier rather than an innovator, which is more prominent in the field of Endourology than in the other subspecialties of Urology.